National Survey of Youth, 1972 (ICPSR 7593)

Principal Investigator(s):Gold, Martin

Summary:

Conducted five years after NATIONAL SURVEY OF YOUTH, 1967
(ICPSR 3509), this study also was designed to measure the frequency
and seriousness of delinquent activity among a representative sample
of American boys and girls. Interviews were conducted in the spring of
1972 with 1,395 respondents who were 11 to 18 years old. Part 1
contains data gathered about the teenager's and his or her family's
characteristics, including job history, family size, parents'
education, attitudes towa... (more info)

Conducted five years after NATIONAL SURVEY OF YOUTH, 1967
(ICPSR 3509), this study also was designed to measure the frequency
and seriousness of delinquent activity among a representative sample
of American boys and girls. Interviews were conducted in the spring of
1972 with 1,395 respondents who were 11 to 18 years old. Part 1
contains data gathered about the teenager's and his or her family's
characteristics, including job history, family size, parents'
education, attitudes toward school, school grades, peer group
activities, dating history, self image, body image, physical health
and maturation, attitudes about authority and youth culture,
relationship with parents, political opinions and participation, and
job aspirations. Part 2 contains each respondent's indication of which
of 17 specific offenses he or she had committed in the previous three
years. Information was coded on up to three incidents of each type of
delinquency for each respondent. Data detailing the circumstances of
each offense is also included. The 17 offenses are: (1) hitting a
parent, (2) skipping school, (3) damaging property on purpose, (4)
trying to get something by lying about age or identity, (5) trying to
get something by lying about what you would do for a person, (6)
taking something not belonging to you, even if you return it, (7)
hurting or injuring someone on purpose, (8) threatening to hurt or
injure someone, (9) trespassing on property, (10) trespassing in a
house or building, (11) drinking beer or liquor without parental
permission, (12) smoking marijuana, (13) using drugs (other than
marijuana) or chemicals, (14) taking part in a fight with friends
against other kids, (15) carrying a gun or knife, (16) taking a car
without permission of the owner, and (17) "going all the way" with a
member of the opposite sex. All but one offense match the list
presented in the 1967 study. The additional offense, marijuana use,
was added to reflect changes in American society since the first study
was done.

The data in this collection are available without
restriction, however, potential users of the National Survey of Youth
datasets are advised to contact the original principal investigator,
Dr. Martin Gold (Institute for Social Research, The University of
Michigan, Box 1248, Ann Arbor, MI 48106), about their intended uses of
the data, which have been and are being used extensively by
researchers. Experience has shown that informing Dr. Gold of intended
use of the data can prevent unnecessary and sometimes embarrassing
duplication of effort and can help avoid misuse of the data arising
out of misunderstanding their nature. Dr. Gold would also appreciate
receiving copies of reports based on the NSY datasets.

Methodology

Sample:
A nationally representative sample.

Data Source:

personal interviews

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Performed consistency checks.

Standardized missing values.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:1984-03-18

Version History:

2006-03-30 File CB7593.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.

2001-11-02 Corresponding SAS and SPSS data definition
statements have been created for each data file, and the hard copy
codebook has been converted to Portable Document Format (PDF). Also,
OSIRIS dictionaries and data maps are no longer being distributed
with this collection.